Teimuraz I: Verses

Teimuraz I (also spelled as Teymuraz, Taimuraz or Taymuraz) was a Georgian monrch of Bagrationi dinasty, who ruled with intermission as King of Kakheti from the beggining to the mid of 17ht century. A versatile poet and admirer of Persian poetry, Teimuraz I's literary works address a wide range of topics and includes his original poems as well as translations and translations/ adaptations from Persian such as romances of Layla and Majnun (Leilmajnuniani), Yusuf and Zulaikha (Iosebzilikhaniani), The Rose and the Nightingale (Vardbulbuliani), and The Candle and the Moth (Shamiparvaniani).

In his poems, Teimuraz laments the destruction of his kingdom, condemning the "transient and perfidious world", and mourns the fate of his family and friends, cursing the cause of his own and his people’s misfortunes, the "bloodthirsty king of Persia." [1] However, Teimuraz's most elaborate and painful poem, is his first, 'The Book and Passion of Queen Ketevan '(also refered as 'The Martyrdom of Queen Ketevan') (ts'igni da ts'ameba k'et'evan dedop'lisa) written in 1625, seven months after his mother, Ketevan, was martyred in Shiraz on September 22, 1624. Teimuraz's immediate source were the eyewitnesses of the event, the Augustinian missionaries from Iran, who brought the king his mother's remains. The same source is shared by another description of Ketevan's martyrdom, the classical tragedy Katharine von Georgien by the German author Andreas Gryphius (1657).[2]